Drill bit buttons may be used in different applications such as during rock drilling, earth boring, mining and the like. The drill bit buttons may be attached to e.g. a rock drilling tool which is brought to rotate relatively the surface to be drilled. Such a rock drilling tool and drill bit buttons are disclosed in US20110000717A1. The drill bit buttons may be made of a composite material comprising a hard phase and a binder phase. The hard phase can be e.g. tungsten carbide and the binder phase can be e.g. cobalt.
Drill bit buttons can also be used in other applications, such as during cutting and/or milling of rocks, asphalt, concrete, and other materials.
During manufacture of the drill bit buttons they may be compressed into a selected shape. In order to strain harden the drill bit buttons, polish the surface and to round of any edges they may be treated in e.g. a tumbling, vibratory-, cascading- and/or centrifuge process. Such a process may be referred to as a finishing process or after-treatment of the drill bit buttons.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,549,912B2 a method for manufacturing drill bit inserts is disclosed. The drill bit inserts are finished in a centrifugal disc finishing machine in which the inserts are subject to a toroidal motion for a time amount of 15-90 minutes.
The method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,549,912B2 may be suitable in some applications but there remains a need for an efficient method for treating both toughness and hardness of drill bit buttons.